Debbie Michel
November 21, 2018In Milwaukee last weekend, Lake Region and Wisconsin conferences partnered to offer training for Earliteen and Youth Sabbath School teachers.
Steve Case, director of Involve Youth, and Vandeon Griffin, associate Youth director for the NAD, brought a weekend filled with many new, out-the-box ideas and activities to help churches reignite Youth Sabbath school.
The ideas consisted of using a dice game for discussion questions, measuring ear lobes for group team building, and inspecting shoe laces to find your partner for discussion questions. The ideas, however crazy they may have seemed, had a purpose to start you in a shallow place to talk and then take you deeper to getting to know the individual.
The Ignite program is about Sabbath schools once again focusing on its original intention: Bible study, world mission, soul-winning, and fellowship. Steve also explored how to mesh these intentions with the four reasons young people will come to Sabbath school, which are: fun, food, fellowship, and faith.
The entire Lake Union was represented; Jason North, Lake Region Youth director; Michael Campos, Illinois Youth director; Eric Chavez, Wisconsin Youth director, and many lay people from each state were present at the weekend event.
Friday evening training had a total of 65 in attendance while Sabbath had 350 Sabbath morning and 110 the remainder of the day. All conferences in the Lake Union intend to encourage and emphasize more of this type of training in the local churches and offer additional support, in an effort to Ignite our Sabbath school classes.
Participants learned of resources, including the launch of the Youth Sabbath School Ideas available for free downloading at www.YouthSabbathSchoolIdeas.org, as well as the Facebook Page “Youth Sabbath School Ideas.”
Video of the Milwaukee training weekend are available at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC35UTrHfAQXgQnxWZYYQ-EQ
Eric Chavez, Wisconsin Youth director, with Lake Union Herald staff
